


Threshold

by Arisusan



Category: X-Force (Comics), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Best Friends, M/M, the boys talking about things that happened, with also something possibly definitely different added in
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-18
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2019-05-08 18:39:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14699964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arisusan/pseuds/Arisusan
Summary: Sam and Bobby have a talk about perspective on the eve of Sam's departure for the X-Men. The usual Da Costa attitude is missing, the defenses go down, and for a moment they're both just kids watching the past go by in the rear view mirror.





	Threshold

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in a fit of procrastination leading up to an exam, so I'm in no position to tell if it's good or not. What I do know is that Sam and 'Berto's dynamic is criminally underused, and I've got a duty to post this whether or not it's up to snuff. Set after Sam finds out he's graduated and Ric leaves, but just before he packs up and leaves. Artistic license may have been taken with the weather and season, because I can't be bothered to check.

It was a fine, springy day. Chilly enough to need the full uniform, but later in the day so that the grass was soft and the dew was gone. Sam had decided not to let it go to waste, and found himself sitting at the base of a tree, watching the birds and one black spot go whizzing through the sky. Bobby seemed to be having fun with his newfound powers. That, or Tab and the rest were still being wary, and he had no other company but the seagulls. Sam didn't blame them. He just knew it must have hurt.

A few minutes ago, he'd turned away from the show and taken a crack at the little book Domino had given him — a novella, she said, I know you'll be busy, so it won't take you long.

But he'd never had much time for reading, and it was slow going through the text. The sentences were peppered with speedbump clauses, little additions that threw off the flow and made it hard to get any meaning out of it without reading out loud.

He'd been so concentrated that he didn't notice the approaching shadow until it flew over him.

"Mind if I join you?" asked a familiar voice.

"Not one bit, Bobby."

Sam patted the grass beside him, though Sunspot had already dropped to the earth. The boy wouldn't take "no" for an answer. As his mama said, it was a good thing he was pretty.

"So, what brings you here?" he started, putting down the book. "I hope no one's…"

"No, no." Bobby cut him off gently with a wave of his hand. "Everyone's been fine. Just needed to be here."

Something was off. He wasn't slipping in a little flattery for himself, or for Sam either. There was still something about Bobby that you couldn't get rid of, even if his charm was turned all the way down. Each movement was deliberate, and graceful, like he was moving through water, even the off-hand shrug he gave.

Da Costa arrogance. That was what the name they called it when he had it turned up. Maybe it was arrogance, maybe it wasn't. Maybe he just knew that he was strong, and charming, and better-looking than most.

Whatever it was, it hadn't shown up today.

"If you need to talk about somethin', I'll listen."

"I know."

It could be about the X-Men. Bobby should know it was his dream, but after years together, this was another of the too many times they'd split up in the past few months.

"You know, Sam…" The words were coming out at a distance, as if Bobby was letting them go rather than pushing them out. "When Cable rescued me, it wasn't just a simple thing. There was a part of him that reached in, and opened my eyes, and for a moment, you see, I could  _see_  things."

Bobby stared out at the horizon, absentmindedly pulling up bits of grass beneath him.

"What kind of things?"

"Things he knew about himself, things he thought about me. Things I knew about myself, but didn't want to think about."

As usual, his voice lilted through the words. Today's tone had a bit less of a song in it, a bit more of a boyish sound. No wonder. Must've been hard, losing your body to a thing like that.

"Bobby, trust me. You're not Reignfire. You're a good guy. A bit full of yourself," he added, not wanting to make it serious, "But you're good."

His best friend just looked over at him, hesitating to give his usual smile.

"Thanks, Sam. I needed to hear that, especially from you. I'm glad."

"I'm sensing a 'but' here." Gosh, he sounded more and more like mom each day. This, at least, got a grin out of Bobby.

" _But_  that wasn't what I was talking about."

"Don't tell me you're going to leave us again."

"Of course not. You're the one who's leaving, this time." There was no hint of ill will in those words, so Sam didn't try to defend himself. Instead, he shifted position, drawing one leg up up and hooking his arms loosely around it.

"You could follow me, in a coupla years. Be an X-man, if you wanted."

"Maybe I will." He didn't mean it, but Sam knew he could. "Someone needs to stop you from breaking all the girls' hearts."

A shadow of Bobby's usual grin crossed his face. As if  _Sam_  was the Casanova of the bunch.

"Me?" He raised his voice to play at indignation. "That's what  _you_  do."

"Come on, Sam," was the easy-going response. "I know for a fact you had Rahne wrapped around your finger in the early days, and then there was whatever happened with Amara, you stole Lila from me, and now Tab! You're a ladykiller, man. Accept it."

Tab, yes; Lila, yes, but not the stealing part; with Amara, well, it was complicated, but there wasn't anything that really happened. But…

"Are you sure about Rahne?"

Bobby gave him a light punch to the shoulder.

"I am an expert at these things, thank you very much. You never noticed, though, so she gave up trying."

Despite himself, he felt his cheeks start to heat up. He was a bit of a jerk, ignoring a young girl's feelings like that.

"I always thought she just looked up to us."

"That, too. All of us did. You and Dani were easy to follow, you know. Always took care of us. Quite frankly, you're nice, you're strong, you're good-looking — no wonder I've never landed any, with you as competition!" Bobby teased.

"Oh, shut your mouth." he muttered, getting even redder in spite of everything he tried. "If you just came here to gossip about girls, you'll get no advice from me."

"All right, all right, I'll stop. I was just thinking…you and I have been together for a while. Longer than any of the others, you know?"

It was true. They'd been teammates for a few years, and best friends for a couple more. But it hadn't all been easy. Bobby had to be goin' somewhere with this.

"Sure."

"And, I know I haven't always been the best, but you were always there for me. When the Externals had me, I wasn't sure I deserved to be rescued — sure as hell didn't thin I deserved to die, I'm not Rahne, it's just that I  _did_  walk out on you — but I believed." Bobby absentmindedly picked a the handful of grass he had, shredding it piece by piece. "I thought, you know, maybe I'll die here. But even if I do, I know Sam will come for me. So I'll stay alive, for now, so that I can thank him for it. Or even just…catch a look of him, you know, before I go."

Snap, snap, the sound of grass breaking.

Sam didn't know what to say to that. It was what they'd do for each other, the X-Force and the New Mutants. It was what he'd do for anyone else. But he'd had a lifetime learning how people worked, and Bobby's voice was heavy with some sort of meaning.

"When Cable got into my head, there was a lot of stuff going on — whatever Reignfire was doing, whatever I was doing, whatever we were both fighting about — but he got through to my core, and there was something…"

Bobby moved his hands, twisting in the air to try and show Sam what he felt.

"You merged, like Doug and Warlock used to?"

"No, no, ew, nothing like that. It was kind of like pouring oil in water. They never dissolve, but there's a moment there when they're mixed so close together that it feels like it's one thing, and then it slowly separates. At one point he could see my thoughts — not feel 'em, but see 'em — and I could see the parts of his that he left unguarded."

With Cable, that could be anything. Maybe it was part of their training? Sam probed further, trying to figure out what Bobby was saying.

"Did he show you anything in specific, or did he just hold back the dangerous parts?"

"I think he just blocked off what he needed. There was no particular thing that came through. I'd have a thought, and he'd see it and think something about it, and I'd see that thought and respond…and all this a thousand times a second."

"Can you remember a lot?"

He looked over, trying to read Bobby's face. There was a frown, but less confused and more worried, wary maybe.

"Not what happened. There are things I knew before and things I know after, and there are images that I can see and thoughts I can remember that I know aren't mine, so I can kind of work it out."

"Hmmm. Sounds far too complicated for me." He folded his arms behind his head. Maybe he thought it would get Bobby's guard down, or maybe he was just enjoying a lazy afternoon.

"Sam," said Bobby after a moment, "I don't think you'd have as much trouble with it as I did. You don't worry about yourself. You just, like,  _are_."

"I'm not so sure. I do plenty of worrying."

"About other people. You worry about how you can help them, how you can make them feel better."

This time, he felt like silence was the best way to get Bobby to say whatever it was he needed to get out.

"I don't know what happened with the fight,but I can remember the moment I woke up, and started thinking, I though — it's Sam." There was a touch more steadiness now, like Bobby had finally realized what he was going for. "The last thing I remember was blacking out, and here I feel awake, so I've been rescued from uncertain death, which means it's got to be Sam. Chalk it up to experience. I think Cable cracked up a bit at that, because he knows I'm a dramatic at heart. I wanted another big rescue."

Bobby laughed, and Sam did too, to hide the discomfort that was starting to creep over him.

"Anyway, there's the memory of someone laughing, probably Cable, and then the memory — of seeing myself, from the outside, with you carrying my body, and of seeing you and me, and wondering who we were as children — it was all Cable's thoughts, and it was all over in a flash, but it's like I remember it from his perspective." He moved his hands to illustrate, as if he was flipping an object around. "But what's scary is, there were other things he thought. His own memories. I couldn't see much of it, but there were people he's saved, people who've saved him, and it all had the same feeling around it that was in me. So I saw what I was thinking, and what the it made him remember."

"Is it his memories, that you wanted to talk about?"

"No. It's mine."

"I…"

Bobby hushed him, pressing a silent finger to his lips. Even now, he was just staring at the horizon, and Sam realized it was so that he didn't have to look him in the eye as he said what he did.

"It's things I never realized until I saw it from the outside. Like you never realized Rahne liked you, until you saw it from my eyes."

He reached out, and set his hand down next to Bobby's. Not touching, but close enough to grasp.

"Bobby…whatever this is, it's okay. I won't tell anyone."

"Okay."

Bobby was still for a moment, then met his eyes, leaning in. Just now, he realized that they'd moved closer together during their little talk, enough to feel goosebumps on his skin when Bobby moved.

"Sam, do you trust me?"

That was no simple question. Would he trust him to keep his head around a pretty girl? Not one bit. Would be trust him with his life? No hesitation.

What it seemed t'mean this time was: do you know what I'm thinking, and will you accept that?

"Yes."

"Close your eyes."

He did, and watched the burning red behind them fade to black as something blocked the sun.

It happened quietly, something given rather rather than taken, and it would have shocked him if it hadn't been so sweet.

Bobby, for all he could lift trucks and smash bones, was gentle, hands resting lightly on his face for just as long as it took to kiss him, then lifting.

The shadow drew back. Sam knew that if he opened his eyes now, he could catch Bobby by the wrist, cuss him out for surprising him, even though they both knew deep down what would happen, and they could agree that it had never happened, and that they would never even think of it again.

He could snap into action, and save face.

Instead, he kept his eyes closed, just for a moment, shivering in the spring sunshine.

Then opened them, and saw a handful of seagulls and one black shadow wheeling in the sky.


End file.
